January 26, 2009

FILM: India frets, tweets, celebrates over "Slumdog Millionaire"

We know than no controversial film release is complete in India without a lawsuit, several street protests and offended religious groups. And so it goes with "Slumdog Millionaire." Let's start with Tapeshwar Vishwakarma, general secretary of Slum Dwellers’ Joint Action Committee: he filed a complaint because he believed the film’s name defames slum-dwellers by calling them ‘slumdogs’.

Erika Kinetz in the Huffington Post: "Protesters held up banners reading "Poverty For Sale" and "I am not a dog" outside Anil Kapoor's House’."

A Hindu group in Goa demanded a ban on the release of the film, saying a few scenes in the award-winning film denigrate Lord Ram. Then they went further:

A mob of Shiv Sena
activists threw stones at and ransacked a multiplex cinema in Panaji on
Friday for screening internationally acclaimed film "Slumdog
Millionaire."

The film, which has already won several Golden Globe awards and
has been nominated in 10 Oscar categories, has been the target of Hindu
right wing groups, who claim that the movie hurts Hindu sentiments.

Newspapers reported a good turnout for the film on its first day, receiving praise from cinema-goers for the strength of its story, cinematography and music.

Nevertheless, some expressed disappointment, saying it failed to live up to the hype, was not as good as Vikas Swarup's book "Q and A," on which it was based, or that it gave a foreigner's view of India and poverty.

Cinema managers were reportedly expecting attendance to pick up over the weekend, but one highlighted how the film was viewed in certain quarters in the home of Bollywood.

"'Slumdog' is big but it is essentially a Hollywood film," Joydeep Ghoshroy, general manager for marketing and sales at PVR Cinemas, told the Hindustan Times.

Reporting from Mumbai, India -- Even as American audiences gush over "Slumdog Millionaire," some Indians are groaning over what they see as yet another stereotypical foreign depiction of their nation, accentuating squalor, corruption and impoverished-if-resilient natives<snip>

They attribute the film's sweeping international success in large part to its timing and themes that touch a chord with Western audiences.

"It's a white man's imagined India," said Shyamal Sengupta, a film professor at the Whistling Woods International institute in Mumbai. "It's not quite snake charmers, but it's close. It's a poverty tour."

In the slums too, views seemed divided.

A few miles away, in the maze of alleys that make up Dharavi, Asia's largest slum and another backdrop for the film, some said the plot sounded too close to real life and therefore not interesting, whereas others said they wanted to see how it depicted their neighborhood.

On Twitter, congratulatory remarks to SM for the nominations and the feeling of oneness with the celebrations were overwhelming. With an occasional, “Is it cool for India to claim Slumdog Millionaire as its own?” or “Is Slumdog Millionaire really India's pride”. Twitter-ers who expresses the desire to travel to India after seeing the film outnumbered those who felt positively depressed and chose not to go. Some felt privileged and marked, “Everybody should see the film 'Slumdog Millionaire' to see a slice of the real India. We, the fortunate ones, are just the cream of the crop.”

Starting with funny, here’s what Amit Varma thought of Vishwakarma suing Rahman and Kapoor. On Indiauncut:

The possibilities for such WTFness are endless: Someone can sue the makers of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi on behalf of God, alleging that they insult God by implying that one can see Her in any random person. Every Indian Idol contestant criticized by Javed Akhtar can sue him for the way his son sang in Rock On. The Chinese government and the Chandni Chowk mohalla committee can sue Akshay Kumar for you-know-what. Torture academies can sue Himessss Reshammiya for making them redundant. And so on and on. Immense potential simmers.

On her blog, Sramana Mitra, entrepreneur & strategy consultant, who really liked 'Slumdog', says it has the “business” ingredients that she has been talking about in her Vision India 2020 series:

low budget, English language, Indian context, great screenplay, great editing, and Indian-international combination production teams.

Bachchan felt outraged by 'Slumdog’s' third-world-sy portrayal, or so the media concocted, he alleges. Infosys Chief Nandan Nilekani blogged about the changing filmi heroes in India and Jamal’s character.

The movie is at its heart, about aspiration, and about dreams coming true. This ‘common man’ Jamal, is not angry, like the Indian men of the 1970s. He is both hopeful and relentless, defiant and proud of his origins even as the people around him call him a ’slumdog’. He knows better - that it doesn’t matter where you come from, only where you are headed.

Boyle and Kapoordanced to the Punjabi ‘dhol’ at the Mumbai premiere. Gulzar, a man of few, measured words, who wrote the lyric for ‘Jai Ho’, "refused to rank his latest nomination in comparison to awards and accolades he has earlier received, he said, this was his first international nomination", according to PTI.

Social workers felt the film gave the Mumbai slums the much needed attention. CS Monitor quotedMr. D'souza, a social worker who has lived all his life in Dharavi,

"The film has put Dharavi on the world map," says D'souza, whose shanty has a cameo in the film. "Hopefully, it will help people and [the Indian] government understand that we, too, deserve a dignified existence."

But here are my favorite two, that concur with two disparate debates in my mind. First: The reason behind "shows India in a bad light" audience sentiment. Second: Is the film really that great?

Let me get this straight: We are not agitated because slumdwellers exist, living their crushingly poor lives. We are not agitated that an Indian man, a senior diplomat, wrote their well-told tale. We are agitated because a White man put them on screen.

Even with all the stereotypes and all the plot contrivances, I would have still enjoyed “Slumdog Millionaire” if it had managed to, at any time, transcend its “masala” origins to become something greater, as Oscar winners ought to. As the “Dark Knight” transcended its comic book origins to become a fascinating study of true evil. As “City of God” goes beyond the depiction of poverty in Brazilian slums (which is never its primary morbid fascination) to become an epic about the cycle of extreme violence.

Yet, there is a
randomly double-standard of wholly unnecessary India-defending
prevalent in a lot of our media, who suddenly seem to be taking an
alarmingly Thackerayite stance in terms of the way India should be
percieved by the West. So we have reviews across publications and blogs
that seem suddenly indignant that anyone other than Mira Nair has made
this film.

Instead
of pointing out debate-worthy 'flaws' -- like the way the film's
question-and-answer driven flashbacks spool out in conveniently
chronological order, or that undeniably jarring dialogue about living
on love -- a significant section of our critics have evidently decided
to say that we, the people of India, do not have slums in our cities,
that begging isn't an industry, and that it's absolutely preposterous
to suggest that a primetime gameshow host could ever be unctuous.

Some video coverage from India:

What do YOU think? Post your comments below - and tell us where you live.

Comments

FILM: India frets, tweets, celebrates over "Slumdog Millionaire"

We know than no controversial film release is complete in India without a lawsuit, several street protests and offended religious groups. And so it goes with "Slumdog Millionaire." Let's start with Tapeshwar Vishwakarma, general secretary of Slum Dwellers’ Joint Action Committee: he filed a complaint because he believed the film’s name defames slum-dwellers by calling them ‘slumdogs’.

Erika Kinetz in the Huffington Post: "Protesters held up banners reading "Poverty For Sale" and "I am not a dog" outside Anil Kapoor's House’."

A Hindu group in Goa demanded a ban on the release of the film, saying a few scenes in the award-winning film denigrate Lord Ram. Then they went further:

A mob of Shiv Sena
activists threw stones at and ransacked a multiplex cinema in Panaji on
Friday for screening internationally acclaimed film "Slumdog
Millionaire."

The film, which has already won several Golden Globe awards and
has been nominated in 10 Oscar categories, has been the target of Hindu
right wing groups, who claim that the movie hurts Hindu sentiments.

Newspapers reported a good turnout for the film on its first day, receiving praise from cinema-goers for the strength of its story, cinematography and music.

Nevertheless, some expressed disappointment, saying it failed to live up to the hype, was not as good as Vikas Swarup's book "Q and A," on which it was based, or that it gave a foreigner's view of India and poverty.

Cinema managers were reportedly expecting attendance to pick up over the weekend, but one highlighted how the film was viewed in certain quarters in the home of Bollywood.

"'Slumdog' is big but it is essentially a Hollywood film," Joydeep Ghoshroy, general manager for marketing and sales at PVR Cinemas, told the Hindustan Times.

Reporting from Mumbai, India -- Even as American audiences gush over "Slumdog Millionaire," some Indians are groaning over what they see as yet another stereotypical foreign depiction of their nation, accentuating squalor, corruption and impoverished-if-resilient natives<snip>